No One Lives Forever/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Complete Monster - Volkov particularly stands out for his cruelty and the way he casually kills henchmen just to vent his anger (although this is sometimes played for laughs). Also the Director and the Baroness - the latter has no Freudian Excuse, even taking into account the harsher detail of her father being involved in a pedophilia scandal. Cate's past is similar, but she took a better path.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome - The main theme of the first game. The theme of the second game, while good, is not at the same level, but you can hear the first theme during the ending credits.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff - The first game was quite successful in Germany, thanks to many positive reviews in the German gaming press, and probably also to its taking place in several German locations. So much that, while the first edition had only translated subtitles, the local publisher took the effort to also dub the game for the GOTY rerelease.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight - Bruno is Sniper and the mimes are Heavy and Demoman. The art style and humor could have easily inspired Team Fortress 2.
    • If you've played Left 4 Dead, listen to Cate's voice. The same VA later played Zoey, and she's using the same voice.
  • Ho Yay - "Tom Goodman" aka Melvin Blitsky and Agent Smith in the first game. They apparently met in a bar in Miami.
  • Nightmare Fuel - The "man-handler", which turns henchmen into human crates, is less funny than it sounds. Especially when you see the eyes of the poor sap the first time the machine is seen in action. Also the entire level in the Antarctic Base, where the occasional malfunctions of the keychain light turn from slightly annoying to unsettling.
  • Tear Jerker - An unexpected one at the end of the second episode. "Abigail..."
  • Villain Decay - Volkov in the second game, in the first he's the main Big Bad, even if he is taking orders from The Man Behind the Man, in the second he's stuck in a wheelchair (albeit a a cool one) and the battle with him is an Anticlimax Boss (compared to verging on That One Boss in the original thanks to being very accurate on higher difficulties).
    • Curiously, at first there seems to be a Retcon, since you assume Volkov's condition is due to his fall in the icy pit near the end of the first episode, apparently ignoring the very last scene of the same game with him in perfect shape, meeting the Director. You also might end up assuming that his first meeting with King Pierre as well as a letter you can find towards the end of the second episode, where he claims he got injured in a skiing accident while on vacation, is a justification he gives to cover his failure. Then, at the end of Contract J.A.C.K. you find out that it's all true.
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